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And I wonder if the team will continue to pay respect to the original anime with the nods and twists that became such a fun part of 2199?

I don't see any reason why they wouldn't continue that trend. They found a real balance between staying true to the original story and providing it with more depth and a wider perspective in 2199, so I predict that to continue.

It will be interesting to see how much of a role the changed political landscape (i.e. Garmillas homeworld still intact, under new leadership, but its military forces stretched thin already due to the empire's size, exacerbated by Yamato's actions at Balun wiping out a good portion of the fleet) will play.

Like I said in the previous thread I'm extremely happy about this development. Anyone know if it's the same character designer?

No mention yet of whether Yuki Nobuteru is returning, but that will probably be revealed on the website when it goes live Thursday.

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I absolutely loved Yamato 2199, and I can't wait to see what's next (I never saw the original, and now I don't care to go back and watch it).

Space Battleship Yamato/Stablazers is a classic and worth checking out, but the animation has not aged well. Much like SDF:Macross and MSGundam, the quality ranges from near sublime to downright awful; also, the character designs are, as is to be expected, thoroughly mired in mid-late 1970s aesthetics, which can be nostalgic, kitschy, or jarring depending on your own preferences. Sticking with 2199 and beyond is entirely understandable given its superb quality, which takes the best of the original designs and stories, and updates them to modern standards for modern audiences.

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Space Battleship Yamato/Stablazers is a classic and worth checking out, but the animation has not aged well. Much like SDF:Macross and MSGundam, the quality ranges from near sublime to downright awful; also, the character designs are, as is to be expected, thoroughly mired in mid-late 1970s aesthetics, which can be nostalgic, kitschy, or jarring depending on your own preferences. Sticking with 2199 and beyond is entirely understandable given its superb quality, which takes the best of the original designs and stories, and updates them to modern standards for modern audiences.

Only exception I would make is to watch the movie version of Yamato 2. The animation is good for the most part, even for today's standards, and the story is still excellent. But it would be best to do so after watching 2202.

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I think Leiji Matsumoto's art style has aged well. It's worth being exposed to it at least once, especially if you enjoy Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, or any of the numerous spin-offs of these (Gun Frontier, The Galaxy Railways, the list goes on). There is also a quality deluxe box set of the original Yamato TV series that is still available from various Japanese shops. The downside is that there are no subtitles included. I hope the success of the new show eventually makes way for a subtitled release of the original anime at some point, but I don't know if the original Yamato has any licensing issues like the original Macross.

Anyway, the really nice thing about the original Yamato, as noted before, is that you will see a different telling of the story than what was told in 2199. I agree that the original story is dated in parts, but it is still fun in its own right. If you want better production values, I can recommend the first two movies too. Alas, I have yet to see Be Forever Yamato.

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I hope the success of the new show eventually makes way for a subtitled release of the original anime at some point, but I don't know if the original Yamato has any licensing issues like the original Macross.

Anyway, the really nice thing about the original Yamato, as noted before, is that you will see a different telling of the story than what was told in 2199. I agree that the original story is dated in parts, but it is still fun in its own right. If you want better production values, I can recommend the first two movies too. Alas, I have yet to see Be Forever Yamato.

Macross has Robotech and Harmony Gold, Yamato has Star Blazers and Voyager Entertainment. On the upside, Voyager has played a bit looser with the licensing for Yamato, and even released Star Blazers 2199 with only minor changes in the subtitles. On the downside, they haven't really done anything comprehensive to bring the Yamato franchise to North America (I don't actually know what their deal is outside of North America) as anything but Star Blazers.

If they pick up 2202, we might see enough renewed interest to license and subtitle some of the original stuff. Probably not.

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IIRC Voyager tried to bring Star Blazers back with Yamato 2199 repackaged as Star Blazers. They stopped after a few volumes and then they went dark. Total clown show that makes Harmony Gold look like professionals in comparison.

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IIRC Voyager tried to bring Star Blazers back with Yamato 2199 repackaged as Star Blazers. They stopped after a few volumes and then they went dark. Total clown show that makes Harmony Gold look like professionals in comparison.

it's retarded to even bring the show on DVD. Netflix or Hulu would be the most logical choice to bring anime back to the US.

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Pretty much. I don't think they've put out any press information since like summer 2014. They may or may not have completed the Star Blazers 2199 release- they certainly stuck around long enough to get a lot of the Bandai merch branded Star Blazers outside of Japan- but even the SB2199 release was half-assed. It didn't stay full Yamato, changing some of the dialogue in subtitles to match the Star Blazers mythos (Argo, anyone?), but it also didn't go full Star Blazers. ie no Wildstar.

The anime pioneers of the 70s and 80s are really a double-edged bunch. On the one hand, they all suck. They either grub on the licensing and refuse to release stuff that doesn't fit the narrative they had to make to get this stuff to fly outside of Japan in its day, or they make halfhearted attempts to cash cow on whatever new stuff gets released. On the other hand, if it weren't for Harmony Gold, Voyager, and company, a whole segment of this industry wouldn't have come about. Or at least, it would have done so a lot later, with greatly different cultural effects. I mean, you know, you've got a fair amount of 70s kids who remember watching Star Blazers and Robotech, but that set the stage for a whole generation raised on Gundam, Pokemon, and Dragonball Z. So much so, I know maybe 4 people who can recall Robotech and Star Blazers. Literally everyone I know between the ages of 20 and 30, is familiar with Pokemon and Dragonball Z. That kind of spells both the expansion of the industry, and what's possible if you know how to license and market a damn release. I wouldn't exactly call Pokemon groundbreaking storytelling.

So, given the track record we've seen from Voyager, I don't expect we'll get an official subtitled Yamato release, and it's similarly unlikely we'll get an official 2202 release. Sucks. If they'd sell the licensing to Funimation or Sentai or any of the other companies (not ADV) in the industry today, they'd probably make out better on the cash-out than they are now, and we'd get competent legitimate releases of good media. Look at Gundam right? We're finally getting ZZ (we're finally gettingZZ...) thanks to that.

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> changing some of the dialogue in subtitles to match the Star Blazers mythos (Argo, anyone?)

Other than the title being changed to Star Blazers 2199 nothing was changed in the subtitles, there is no Argo, or WIldstar, or Venture, or Nova, etc... in SB 2199.

Yeah. But I think old English Dub (the first two seasons) is one of the better dubs out there. It is worth preserving that and the original uncut Japanese version with subtitles. Creating a Star Blazers dub for 2199 doesn't make sense, but I understand why Voyager was using that brand to market the show.

As an aside, I like having choices with my media. Streaming is convenient and all but it should be a license that companies try to get in addition to a physical media license. If they stop doing that, I'll have no choice but to hope for more Japanese releases with official subtitles and that's like wishing on a star sometimes. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about any of this with 2199. My guess is that 2202 will be distributed in a similar fashion and we will have an option to import a physical copy of the Japanese version with subtitles.

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> changing some of the dialogue in subtitles to match the Star Blazers mythos (Argo, anyone?)

Other than the title being changed to Star Blazers 2199 nothing was changed in the subtitles, there is no Argo, or WIldstar, or Venture, or Nova, etc... in SB 2199.

It may have been a tentative change that was cut before production, but in the initial trailer, references to Yamato were replaced with Argo, and the Star Blazers spelling of Gamilas was used. I admittedly didn't watch the official release, because reasons.

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The most glaring flaw of the original Space Cruiser was the distinct lack of women on the ship. Yuki must've had some LONG nights on that year long voyage...

LoL! Yeah, that is one of those dated story points. I remember the early episodes when the Yamato crew was being called to arms, and all of Yuki's peers were present alongside her. Then, woops, off the ship with you. It never made sense to me. Instead of letting that full female compliment of support and medical staff on board (creating a true ark in space), they left the women behind on a dying planet. It was even more ironic as the threats increased later on. She was doing everything from radar work, to nursing, to food preparation. Those space navy guys were lucky she had plot armor and wasn't the recipient of a golden bullet.

Indeed, 2199 handled it better.

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It may have been a tentative change that was cut before production, but in the initial trailer, references to Yamato were replaced with Argo, and the Star Blazers spelling of Gamilas was used. I admittedly didn't watch the official release, because reasons.

I think it was a case of them being too cheap to actually go through with the changes. I have all four disks of SB 2199 and did not remember a single SB other than the title of the disk.

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That and they probably determined there would be more interest in a branded Yamato release, than a halfhearted re-sub to reflect the naming of stuff within a Star Blazers context. Which means ultimately we did get a Yamato 2199 release. (And some officially licensed merchandise)

Better than Harmony Gold could have pulled off, if there was a hypothetical Macross 2009. They would have tried and failed to make a Robotech release and then dropped the project and tightened licensing and import restrictions again.

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That and they probably determined there would be more interest in a branded Yamato release, than a halfhearted re-sub to reflect the naming of stuff within a Star Blazers context. Which means ultimately we did get a Yamato 2199 release. (And some officially licensed merchandise)

In the US? I've not seen it other than imports from Japan sold on Ebay.

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I have seen them in my local Hobbytown USA, branded as Star Blazers merch. Local Hobbytown does a lot of Bandai import, but you never get Macross or Star Wars stuff because of licensing rules that keep it out. Additionally, I don't think we have any Yamato 2199 stuff, just SB2199.